The Swap
by kateholliday
Summary: "Open up to me, it's all you gotta do. Give me all your heart, swap mine out with you." A prompt dedicated to Nams (@littlejaymogron on Twitter).
1. Chapter 1

**[A/N]**: This is a prompt requested by my super awesome Twitter best friend: littlejaymogron! This is actually long over-due (like since last year) but I just finished high school last Tuesday so now I got lots of free time to update my fics. I hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Glee.

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"Babe, I'm running late. I have to go," She utters as she passes him by, stopping at his side to press a soft kiss to his cheek. "Love you."

"Hey wait! I'll drive you to McKinley," He says after a beat, smiling broadly, his hand coming to squeeze her forearm and the blonde smiles wildly back.

"You just want to show off your new convertible."

"Or maybe I just really want to drive my wife to work." He closes the gap between them on instinct, grabs the sides of her shawl, pulling it closer around her as he kisses her cheek.

He goes to their bedroom then appears a moment later and gives her a look that tells her it's time to leave. He's got his keys in his hand, his jacket slung around his arm.

It takes them approximately nine minutes to reach McKinley. They would be there in four minutes, if she didn't make him go to a drive thru for breakfast.

He parks right in front of the school entrance and waits for her to finish her pancake. But she keeps on laughing over the moment when the cashier began to dance and sing-along to Shaggy's "Mr. Bombastic" with them as they waited for the food.

"We have got to get a new morning drive song."

"Honey, you're twenty minutes late."

Finally, she glances at her watch. She imagines a room full of students scrambling to talk to each other; it's incredibly noisy and they're all rowdy, so she shrugs. "It's the first day of school. No one wants to learn Geography — in the first day of school — at first period. I'll just skip it,"

However, she changes her mind as she angles her head to the side when she sees two figures approaching the school at a fast pace. "Besides, I'm not the only teacher who is late," She says as she packs what's left of her pancake.

He turns his head to where she's looking at and then laughs heartily; he remarks at the way Emma was walking. "I guess they had too much fun in the bedroom."

"Well, I for one do not want to have an awkward encounter at this time of the morning so I'm going to go now."

As a gesture of his approval, he brought one hand up to hold the back of her head, smashing their lips together in a kiss of such intensity that neither of them noticed that Will and Emma had already pass them by.

"I'll see you later, Carl."

"I'll see you later, Holly."


	2. Chapter 2

**[A/N]**: First of all, I'm going to do my best to be fair in featuring both pairings (Will/Emma & Carl/Holly). So I just ask of your patience and support. Also, thank you to those who left reviews and to those who viewed this fic! I promised Nams that I'd post this chapter by today so here it goes!

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"But that doesn't change anything. I still find her intimidating and," the student suddenly stands up and begins to pace around Emma's office, "she still keeps on looking at Finn with lust in her eyes!"

Emma blinked. _Stay focused_, she told herself as she continued to quietly tap her fingertips on the table. _This is your student. This is Rachel Berry talking to you about Santana. This is about her relationship with Finn Hudson. This is not about you and Will._

"Does Finn look at Santana like that too?"

"No, of course not. I trust Finn, Miss Pillsbury. It's Santana I don't trust." Rachel replies, her eyes fixed on the speck of dirt on her shoe as silence builds up in the room.

"He's a great guy, you know? I just don't want to lose him." Her voice trailed off as she glanced out the window.

"Rachel," Emma started, her voice very soft, "I think what you need is assurance from Finn and closure from Santana."

Rachel's head snapped back and her inquiry was immediate. "Assurance and closure?"

"Yeah...you and Finn have built a foundation, right? If little 'earthquakes' occur, do you think that the foundation you've built would remain strong?"

"It would depend on how we would handle an 'earthquake'," Rachel begins to say, making use of air quotations for the metaphor. "If the foundation becomes weak even before the 'earthquake', it could crumble down when the 'earthquake' strikes. But if we have each other's assurance that the foundation is strong and firm, we can withstand anything!" Rachel exclaimed and smiled proudly to Emma.

"Exactly." Emma confirms, smiling back.

"But what about the closure?" Rachel asks.

Emma falls silent for moment; she's weighing her words carefully, "I know that you and Santana are not the best of friends but I think that it would help if you talk to her about it."

"You and I both know that Santana isn't that much of a talker unless she's spreading rumors or backstabbing other people." Rachel replies honestly.

"Or maybe you can express your feelings through song?" Emma offered and gave her another half-smile.

"Yeah. It works most of the time. I'll give it a shot. Thanks, Miss Pillsbury."

As she left, Emma sighed as she let her small shoulders hunch forward. Had she let her emotions cloud her work? Let things get too personal? Why is she so bothered by Holly's return? Are the things she said to Rachel also the advice she needed?

She checks the time on her wall clock. _Will doesn't have a class_. She puts her pamphlets in a neat pile then with a wet wipe in hand, she closes her office door. She discards the wet wipe in the nearest trash bin, straightens her pencil skirt and releases a deep breath.

_I need assurance from you, Will. I need to talk to you. No Glee kids or any other matter involved; just you and me. I think that we don't talk about our feelings and I think it's about time that we did._

"Wait. That might scare him. I need a calmer and softer approach." Emma says to herself. She slows her walking pace to his office while she creates a mental draft of the things she wanted to tell him. But for some reason, she found him in an empty classroom, stretching up to pin something onto the cork board on a wall.

She opens the door and hears a woman laugh.

"You just placed an entire continent on the other side of the world!"

"I failed a lot in Geography." Will snorted with laughter as the blonde moved toward him from the other end of the classroom and took the continent cut-out from his hand.

"Now I know why." Holly grinned, poking his butt chin playfully.

Not wanting to see the playful banter go further, Emma clears her throat and they both turn to look at the source of the sound.

"Oh. Hi, Emma." Holly smiles and waves at her.

"Em," Will says, looking quite surprised to see her. She stood awkwardly as he approached. "Holly was just asking me to help out in preparing the classroom," he begins to explain but she cuts in, pressing a finger to his lips, causing his breath to catch in his throat.

"It's okay. I trust you." Emma giggles.

But her smile fades away when she notices that Holly's still watching them.

"Can I just talk to him alone…for a while?" Emma asks Holly.

"Go ahead!" Holly shrugs returning to pin more cut-outs.

Emma clears her throat once more.

"Oh! I thought you guys were the ones who were going to leave. Ha," Holly lets out a laugh as she gathers her things and heads for the exit. "Just please don't rearrange the tables or get anything…_wet._"

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**[A/N]**: The next chapter is fully of Wemma. Don't worry.


	3. Chapter 3

**[A/N]**: I'm getting positive feedback from my Twitter friends and from other viewers. Thank you so much, guys!

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When they hear the door close, Will speaks first. "Am I in trouble?" he asks, and gives her one of his famous half-smiles

Emma takes a sharp intake of breath. _Calm and soft, Emma. You can do this._

His fingers stretch out of their own accord to brush a few stray hairs from her cheek, and he heard her bite back a gasp. She takes one step back. The intensity of her gaze changes a little, and Will realizes that the situation is more serious than he thinks it is.

Finally, Emma spoke, unable to bear the uncertainty any longer.

"Do you love me, Will?"

"Of course I do," He answers almost immediately. "You know I do. I love you more than anything, Emma."

Her posture crumbles a little at the sight of his genuine smile and her bottom lip starts trembling as his smile fades and he just simply keeps on staring at her. She continues to speak though, despite being painfully aware of his state of confusion. "Because Holly's back and it keeps on bothering me that if she hadn't pushed you away that night, the two of you might still be together to this day," she stands there, unmoving, only shuffling from one leg to the other, completely insecure. "I know you really liked her, Will. And seeing the two of you a while ago…well, we don't have those moments. I didn't even know you failed a lot in Geography."

"Holly's married to Carl, Em," He smiles placatingly at her. "We were just having fun." Emma nods, smiling back sadly; she's not even shocked about Carl and Holly's marriage. _I understand. But it's not enough. _She buries her head in her hands, shoulders hunching, forcing herself to take a couple of deep breaths, for she's suddenly on the verge of crying.

"Emma," he begins to say, in a soothing tone as if talking to a small, scared child. "It's your shoulders I hug at night, not Holly's. It's you who I make pancakes for in the morning. It's you who I get to see before I sleep and the moment I wake up. It's _you — _the most beautiful, most loving, most special and most unique person I know — who I want to spend the rest of my life with."

Emma looks at him and she knows those words came straight out of his heart. And in that moment, it hits her: She doesn't deserve him, God knows, she really doesn't. This man is standing in front of her, professing his love for her and she thinks that she needs more than just words to reassure her about _them_. She remembers lying on _their_ bed, thinking what it was that attracted him to her, what it was that made him fall into her arms when his marriage came crumbling down. _Why her? _She can't see it. For her, she's just a person with an anxiety disorder, way too selfish and guarded to let anyone love her the way they deserve. Despite knowing all of this, however, he was still there, the way she thinks she was for him; for five years. And she knows he's still waiting for the moment that she'd come into her senses; until she realizes that she can settle down with what was literally in front of her eyes.

With the weight of her feelings for him rushing through her, she finally whispers, "I don't deserve you, Will," Her warm breath hits his face in a sweet, delicate puff, but she's not finished. "I want to be the person to make you happy, the same way you've been making me happy for so long. But I don't even know if I'm capable of doing that; if I can be _your _person."

"You _are_ my person, Em. You've been making me happy for who knows how long. You may not realize it, but you are. You really are." he smiles, his eyes on her, willing her to understand.

"Does that sound reassuring to you?" he asks her.

"Kind of," comes her soft reply. She's still trying to take everything in. God, she wishes they had done this a long time ago. "It sounds really cheesy though."

He is not disappointed at her answer, and it just convinces him more when a beautiful smile spread across her face. "I didn't get that from the movies," he supplies and he can see she's barely able to contain her delight. It has a mutual effect on him. But he needs to be sure she understands, really understands.

He cups her chin in his hand, bringing her face to his to kiss her with thorough tenderness.

"Be patient with me, okay?" She said nibbling his bottom lip as she gently pulled away.

"Yes, ma'am," he returned immediately, before he claimed her lips once more.


End file.
